Monday, September 23, 2013

Time to go get your calendars. Some intriguing speakers are just ahead.

Here’s the lineup:

Monday (Sept. 23) – Noted Israeli archeologist Gaby Barkay will talk at UNC
Charlotte about two of the oldest fragments of a biblical text ever found.

The tiny texts include the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) widely used in
synagogues and churches and the oldest example of the divine name “Yahweh”
written in paleo-Hebrew letters.

Inscribed on silver scrolls, the fragments predate the Dead Sea Scrolls by
500 years.

Barkay will speak at 7 p.m. in Cone University Center’s McKnight Hall.

Wednesday (Sept. 25) -- James Tabor, chair of UNC Charlotte’s Department of Religious
Studies, will kick off the Milford Dialogue, a lecture/discussion series at Park
Road Baptist Church. It’s named for the late Rev. Charlie Milford, the church’s
former pastor.

A provocative author and a veteran of several archaeological digs in the Holy
Land, Tabor is scheduled to consider the impact the first-century Jesus has on
21st century Christians.

Tabor’s books include “Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed
Christianity,” “The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the
Birth of Christianity” and his controversial “The Jesus Dynasty: A New
Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of
Christianity.”

Tabor will speak at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Center of the campus of Park
Road Baptist, 3900 Park Road.

Sept. 28 – CNN
political anchor Wolf Blitzer will moderate a community
dialogue at Lenoir-Rhyne University on “Politics, Religion and LGBT
Equality.”

Also on the panel: Mitchell Gold, a Hickory business
executive, gay advocate and author of “Youth in Crisis: What Everyone Should
Know About
Growing Up Gay”; the Rev. T.Anthony Spearman, pastor of Clinton Tabernacle Church in
Hickory; and the Rev. Jack McKinney, a Baptist minister and
pastoral counselor.

The event will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the university’s P.E. Monroe Auditorium,
625 Seventh Ave. S.E. in Hickory.